Stucco News

Question and answers on Stucco and Plastering
-- April, 2013

Just came across your site and have a question I
was hoping you might
be able to answer and give me some guidance about next
steps...

I live in NY (Long Island) and rebuilt my home within
the last year. I
tore it down to the foundation. I decided to
Stucco the house, but
before doing so I asked my contractor who
was doing the work about
cracking. He said that stucco has a tendency to crack
over time and
you'll need to stay after it which I accepted at
face-value. As a
background, the original house had been built in
1930 and the original
stucco was still on the house. However, when we began
the renovation it
was apparent that the whole house was rotted and in
most cases it was
the stucco that was supporting the home.

In any event, we opted to tear it down (but leave the
original
foundation which was inspected and deemed to be fine)
and rebuild it and
use stucco on the outside. We opted for the Three-Coat
Portland Cement
Stucco. The Stucco work began in mid-November
2005 and was completed in
Feb 2006 and my concern was whether the temperature
would become an
issue. I was told by the contractor as long as the
temperature doesn't
drop below 40 degrees he can work. He used
heaters during the day in
January but not at night. He also used the Tyvek
Stucco Wrap.

In mid-January, I began to notice a few cracks running
vertically in the
Stucco and the contractor told me, "Well, I told you
would get some
cracks" and when I pressed him that I would not expect
to see cracking
so soon he said don't worry about it. Once you
get through all the four
seasons you can thoroseal it to which I explained that
I'm paying $40k
to have him put the color on so I don't need to paint.
I did not press
him after that. In April, I began to see some
more cracking and I
called the stucco supplier who sent someone out to
take a look and he
said you should only see a little bit as the weather
warms up but also
questioned whether the lathe was self-furring and
installed
appropriately. He also chipped away at a very
small section to see the
thickness of the cement which he said was
adequate. So, I waited...

In November 2006, it was apparent that the cracking
was happening all
over the house. Vertical
Cracks were occurring almost 2 feet apart
from
just above the foundation and stretching to the
roof so I called my
contractor and told him. His answer was "I told you it
would crack, the
house is settling and it's normal. Just thoroseal it".
He has refused to
come back and acknowledge any responsibility. I
then called an engineer
who told me there is no evidence of any settling and
he recommend a
Stucco Contractor who he trusts to come by and take a
look. His person
looked at the house for about 90 minutes and concluded
that the
contractor probably did
not use self-furring lath, there was
discoloration from frost, and based on pictures which
I had taken during
the construction indicated that the lath was not installed
horizontallyand overlaid properly in
many places which would be
consistent with cracking
approximately every 2 feet. In
addition he
felt that the mix was not mortar cement, but instead
masonry cement. He
claimed he was not interested in anything other than
trying to help me
out. He wasn't interested in selling me the
job. In fact, all of his
work is out in the Hampton's about 50 miles from me.
His opinion was
that this was bad workmanship and I need to chase the
contractor and
begin a lawsuit to recover the costs of tearing it
down and re-doing it
properly. He felt that I run a risk of water
getting into those cracks
and causing damage to the inside walls. My biggest
immediate concern was
that.

I subsequently called back the manufacturer's rep who
initially saw the
house in April. This time he told me there was
something definitely
wrong and provided me with a written report of
possible causes including
incorrect installation and failure to use self-furring
lathe and/or the
appropriate cement mix. He conceded that the
proper way to remedy this
is to tear it down and redo-it, and the contractor
should be held liable.

Besides having to spend alot of money to re-do this in
the event I
cannot recover money from the contractor, in your
opinion do you feel I
need to do this sooner rather than later because of
potential water
damage or is this a cosmetic issue which I can hold
off on undertaking
until I cannot afford to re-do it?

I 'd be interested to hear your thoughts and be more
interested in your
guidance on next steps.

Probably the cracks aren't of any concern, as far as
water infiltration goes. If they are hairline
cracks, you may
confirm this by throwing clean water on the crack.
It should soak in before it goes far. Bear in mind
water
runs downhill, and the stucco has a vapor barrier
like tarpaper behind it.

I do have a solution to re-coat your walls over in a
manner where
the cracks will disappear. The doubt I have is the
fact the lath may not
have
been overlapped enough( at least one inch). There is
a possibility the
cracks
will come through.

What seems bad is the cracks are vertical, and
probably the distance
apart as a sheet of lath is wide, or just over 2
feet.